West Midlands CETT Advisory Board Meeting
held on 1 July at NEW College
Present:
1.
Maureen Atkinson (Chair of Learning Strategy Group, RAWM) Chair
Julie Chamberlain (Project Manager WMCETT) Secretary
Fergus McKay (Director WMCETT)
Mike Smith (HWSTPA)
Kevin Gillard (North East Worcestershire College)
Helen Kinghorn (Warwickshire College)
Apologies
Kelvin Nash sent apologies, and Kevin Gillard attended from NEW College on his behalf. Ros Partridge did
not attend.
Helen Kinghorn, Vice Principal for Entrepreneurial Learning from Warwickshire College, had been invited to
attend this meeting.
2. Minutes of Advisory Board meeting, 28 January, 2014
They were agreed as a correct record.
3.
Matters arising
Re action point about reviewing the board, JC said she had attempted to invite a representative of
Worcestershire LEP but they had changed jobs just before this meeting. A new attempt would be made.
FM said that as MS was planning to retire, we would invite his successor as chair of HWSTPA to take over
his role. MS also suggested inviting Ian Oakes from Wolverhampton University who also works with LEPs.
Action point: Review the board and try to involve more people as members.
4.
Director’s update
FM reported that as part of the requirements for the GCSE Maths Enhancement Programme WMCETT had
to set up a Mathematics Education Support Hub (MESH), and this had met three times. It had proved
popular with colleagues and it was felt the MESH should continue in one guise or another. Walsall College
had invited people to visit to see how they were meeting the challenge, and a representative of
Birmingham Adult Education Service had talked about a course they delivered around the language of
maths for people with English as a second language. There had been a sharing of resources.
The funding for the GCSE Maths Enhancement Programme had now ended. Partners had said they would
like this programme to continue to be offered. We had been impressed with the NCETM’s materials and
trainers. We were hoping to be able to run the course again at cost, but the question was whether people
would take it up.
Although the maths programme had been a success, the ETF had decided to run the English enhancement
programme differently. Two or three models would be available and we hoped to be involved in offering it.
1
FM said he had put a bid in to be one of three organisations running a programme to train graduates to
teach maths in FE, but it had not been successful.
HK and KG talked about the current challenges facing FE colleges. HK said her staff who had taken the GCSE
Maths Enhancement Programme had been very pleased with the course and the organisation of it, even
down to NCETM instructions on photocopying of materials. She said maths was a huge issue for FE at the
moment, and her college was working on how they could get every new student signed up to do maths and
English. They would be in a programme of study and it would have to be progressive, from unitised
functional maths up to GCSE. Last year the college had tried to provide GCSE English and maths across all
six centres and there had been problems with not having enough teachers, and they had had to use agency
staff. Curriculum leaders for maths and English had now been recruited and they were a godsend. The
college still did not know how many students would arrive without a GCSE in English and maths.
Functional maths was currently delivered in the vocational areas, but it would be done on a centralised
timetable. On the timetable, everything else fitted around maths. KG said his college also needed to put it
on the time table where it was most accessible. HK said there was the problem of there being a limited
numbers of maths and English teachers, and there was the question of what schools and colleges paid. KG
said his college worked in partnership with a local high school which had an Ofsted rating of excellent.
HK said Warwickshire College put in a bid to do a core maths Level 3 pilot and on the back of that had been
invited to become a Techbacc pilot. KG said his college had had to spend a lot of time thinking about the
new college structure so wasn’t as advanced as Warwickshire College in some of its thinking.
FM asked about funding problems in FE. HK said there were issues with ESOL teaching, and also funding for
courses to support SEN students. The numbers of autistic students had increased and the college was
having to bring in people to train staff in teaching them.
HK was also involved in the Further Education Learning Technology Action Group which by 2015-16
proposed 10 per cent of a course be delivered on line, and by 2016, 50 per cent. KG said the FELTAG report
had had a big impact and the college was looking at what influence on-line learning had on funding. HK said
the college was looking at being a trailblazer for next year if the funding was right. KG said students needed
to be prepared for it and how to access this. FM said it took a significant amount of time to create an online
programme and KG said so much on line was of a high standard that new resources produced would have
to be equally high which would be challenging.
HK said the college had also been looking at flipped learning and digital media, and some brilliant work had
been produced in college.
MS talked about the new structure for the Skills Funding Agency which came into force on July 1, with a
new Employer and Delivery Service.
5.
Project manager’s update
JC talked about the work the CETT had been involved in since the previous meeting in January:
1) There had been a target of 222 people to recruit to the GCSE Mathematics Enhancement Programme by
the end of March, and by that time there were 289 people on 18 courses. There was nationally some
funding left, so we were allowed to run another one, ending up with 302 people on 19 courses. So far 12
have finished, and they will all have done so by the end of July. Feedback was extremely positive.
2) Good Practice Networks – the ETF, through ACETT, funded us to run three workshops on maths, English
and SEN post-16 teaching. Reports were produced from all three looking in detail at effective practice, and
barriers to good practice. We have not had any feedback on these.
4) PyeTait Consultation won a contract to run a consultation on Professional Standards, and asked WMCETT
and EMCETT to organise the Midlands event, which was held at the University of Warwick. About 50 people
attended, and contributed to a report produced for the Foundation by PyeTait.
5) Maths Fest! 2014 events were being held on July 4 at Staffordshire University and July 8 at the University
of Warwick. So far 18 paying guests and seven speakers (also attending workshops) at Staffordshire, and 40
paying and 10 speakers at Warwick.
JC also presented some papers on finance. There is enough funding to plan to continue until the end of
August 2015 but we will need to find other sources of income in the next few months to raise our profile
and continue for longer.
FM said opportunities to attract project funding had decreased over the years. MS said WMCETT had
developed courses which had been taken on by the university and it had earned money from them.
6.
Any other business
FM thanked MS for all his hard work and everything he had done for WMCETT.
7.
Next meeting
The date for the next meeting was set for Tuesday, 9 December, at 5pm at NEW College.